Imago
Source: YT videos, unlicensed
Imago
Source: YT videos, unlicensed
Essentials Inside The Story
- Former NFL lineman’s post-football life collides with massive federal fraud verdict.
- Jury convicts Keith Gray after prosecutors detail Medicare scheme worth hundreds of millions.
- Luxury cars, kickbacks, and fake contracts expose how the operation allegedly worked.
A federal jury in Dallas on Thursday found former NFL player Keith Gray, 39, guilty of his involvement in a $328 million scheme centered on fraudulent cardiovascular genetic testing. Evidence presented at trial showed that Gray led an operation that billed Medicare for genetic tests deemed medically unnecessary.
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“Gray, the owner and operator of two clinical laboratories, Axis Professional Labs LLC (Axis), and Kingdom Health Laboratory LLC (Kingdom), offered and paid kickbacks to marketers in exchange for their referral of Medicare beneficiaries’ DNA samples, personally identifiable information (including Medicare numbers) and signed test orders from medical providers authorizing the medically unnecessary genetic tests,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) wrote.
“As part of the scheme, the marketers engaged other companies to solicit Medicare beneficiaries through telemarketing and to engage in “doctor chase,” i.e., to obtain the identity of beneficiaries’ primary care physicians and pressure them into approving genetic testing orders for patients who purportedly had already been “qualified” for the testing during telephone calls conducted by non-medical personnel at one of the companies retained by the marketers — not by their physicians.”
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The Department of Justice also mentioned that the tests were to assess the risk of various cardiovascular diseases and conditions. And as per their statement, Gray created bogus contracts and invoices in order to hide the kickback payments. The invoices created to charge for marketing hours were reverse-engineered to correspond precisely with the sums agreed upon in the unlawful per-sample kickback scheme.
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The former NFL player attempted to mask the scheme by characterizing the kickback payments as expenses tied to software and loans that, in reality, did not exist.
Axis and Kingdom submitted roughly $328 million in false, fraudulent, and kickback-tainted genetic testing claims to Medicare, which ultimately paid out about $54 million of that total. And as per prosecutors, Gray laundered a portion of that to purchase luxurious items. That includes a Dodge Ram truck valued at more than $142,000 and a Mercedes-Benz SUV worth over $145,000.
And at trial, prosecutors presented text messages exchanged between Gray and his co-conspirator, whose name was not revealed, that showed them celebrating the profits they were reaping from Medicare:
Gray’s co-conspirator: “$ent, you should have it any minute if you don’t already. Get it?”
Gray: “Sorry I was filling my bathtub with ones. Yes lol.”
Keith Gray is scheduled to be sentenced
Gray was convicted for fraud. He received five counts of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute and three counts of money laundering. He will be sentenced at a future date, and each count carries a potential maximum prison term of ten years, according to reports.
Gray’s sentence will be decided by a federal district court judge after weighing the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors, as per DOJ.
The case is being prosecuted by trial attorneys Ethan Womble and Adam Tisdall from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. Through its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, the Fraud Section spearheads the Criminal Division’s nationwide efforts to tackle health care fraud.
Since its launch in March 2007, the initiative, which is now made up of eight strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has brought charges against more than 6,200 defendants.
Notably, multiple agencies worked on Gray’s case. The FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit all took part. Officials said the conviction sends a message as they continue battling health care fraud that drains billions from federal programs every year.
Before this legal entanglement, Gray built his name in the field
He served as a captain for the UConn Huskies, playing center from 2004 to 2008 and starting 13 games in 2007. However, injuries marked much of his time in college, as he sat out his 2004 freshman year as a redshirt. He was also limited to only two appearances in 2006 before a shoulder problem ended his season.
He later entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2009 and spent brief stints with the Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts before moving on. After that, he had a brief stint in the UFL, and once his playing career ended, he returned to Texas and became the owner of Axis Professional Labs and Kingdom Health Laboratory.
In fact, in 2021, he had mentioned in an interview how he wanted a career plan for his life after football. And that ultimately influenced his decision to pursue a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science and mathematics at UConn. He had a brief talk with the head of the actuarial program and learned that he could make good money with that degree.
“All right, let’s do this,” Gray thought and went ahead with it.
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